


Tattered Petals

by iDraekios (BlackHawk323)



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-23
Updated: 2018-05-17
Packaged: 2019-01-04 07:52:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,482
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12164664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BlackHawk323/pseuds/iDraekios
Summary: What do you do when love disappears? Will you hunt it down to the ends of the earth? Or will you wait and wonder what could have been?





	1. Without A Trace

**Author's Note:**

> Another venture, another attempt to find something that sticks.
> 
> Haven't posted to AO3 in a while, and I see the posting is still as complicated as usual. In any case, let's get this show on the road! If you came here from Tumblr, be sure to give this a Kudo to let me know you want more of the story.
> 
> See you guys in the next one!

 

_ “Ever has it been that love knows not its own depth until the hour of separation." _

-Kahlil Gibran

 

A choked sob stumbled out as a slip of paper, tear-stained and marked with only a few scarce words, fluttered slowly to the floor. The girl who had been holding it, a lass of no more than eighteen, dropped to her knees besides it. Her dark hair covered her eyes, the tips tinged a wondrous red as tears ran down her face, her jaw set tight to keep her cries from being heard as her body shook with each sob that shuddered through her. The words written on the page echoed in her mind. The sound dull, and each word that came to the front of her mind brought yet another shudder as she held herself together by her fraying, fragile ends. The droning noise of the TV only added to the absurdity of it all, the sound one of normal familiarity while everything else about the girl’s world was slowly falling away from what it had been for the last multitude of years.

She muffled an agonized scream, and her breath caught in her throat a moment later as the sound of feet rushing down the single flight of stairs in the house caught her attention. Moments later, another entity joined the room, a set of soft violet eyes filled with worry as the blonde rushed over to the side of her younger sibling. She wrapped her arms around her sister, softly speaking, though it didn’t seem as though the other girl could particularly hear her. Too consumed by her own grief, the youngest of the two was left crippled by the weight of what was happening.

The elder sibling caught sight of the paper where it lay in front of her sister, and the words scrawled along it were shakily-written, as though the one who wrote them was either unfamiliar with the script or was scared to death when they wrote it.

 

_**Ruby,** _

_**Don’t come looking for me.** _

_**I’m sorry.** _

__

_**Apologies,** _

_**Weiss** _

  
  


The blonde-haired girl blinked a few times, trying to make sense of what possible reason that Weiss could’ve had for bailing out at a time like this. And those words, ‘Don’t come looking for me.’ The simplicity of that statement, simply the matter-of-fact tone it had about it. It didn’t sit well with her, but she had the matter of her sister, Ruby, to deal with first.

The blonde was about to get up to go fetch the only member of the household that still slept when Ruby reached over and grabbed her sleeve, a soft tear-choked “Yang,” escaping the broken girl’s lips. Yang spared another glance to the staircase before sitting back down next to her sister, quickly fishing out her phone and sending a single text to the aforementioned sleeper.

  _**Blake.** _

_**Get down here.** _

_**It’s Ruby.** _

 

Yang wrapped her arms around her sister, pulling the shaking form close to her as Ruby buried her face into her sister’s body, the glimmer of metal around her neck as it caught the sunlight. The sight of it sent a dull pang through Yang’s stomach, but she didn’t otherwise react. She didn’t need to, so she sat there with her sister for the half hour it took Blake to eventually wake up enough to be able to read the text.

When the so-called housecat eventually did, however, she was down the stairs in an instant, her lithe form vaulting over the railing to stand over the two shapes huddled in the half-open doorway to Ruby’s room. The raven-haired girl’s entire stance exuded worry, and it took little more than a glance for Yang to convey that she knew only a little more about what was going on than she did.

 

When Ruby eventually calmed down, the trio found themselves sitting at the kitchen table. Three cups of coffee set upon it, though it seemed that Blake was the only one really drinking her’s. Ruby’s remained untouched and Yang had taken a couple sips, which was a far cry from the fact that Blake had managed to down at least two cups by this point in time.

“Damn, slow down Blake. You’ll end up like Oobleck if you keep drinking that fast,” Yang teased, attempting to lighten the mood a slight bit. Ruby’s mouth twitched slightly upwards at the comment, and Blake rolled her eyes in response.

“Says the one who once spent an entire weekend drunk at a comic festival,” Blake shot back, the memories of fishing Yang out of some guy’s swimming pool at three am almost as fresh as the detergent they’d had to apply a total of three times to get the smell of whiskey out of Yang’s clothing. Fireball whiskey, no less. 

“You have to admit that was a pretty  _ comical _ occurence,” Yang cracked a smile and a pun, though a lackluster one it still managed to get a smile out of the disheartened Little Red as Blake let out a somewhat annoyed sigh and rolled her eyes once more.

“You and your puns,” she said.

“Don’t lie, I know you love me for them.”

“In your dreams.”

Silence befell, and the moment passed as the group struggled to find a way to approach the elephant in the room. It was usually about this time that the Ice Queen would’ve responded with her own remark, or perhaps changed the topic or told Yang and Blake that if they were going to flirt to do so a fair more obviously so that she wouldn’t have to sit through all the nudges and innuendoes that the pair of them had a tendency to toss around. In response to which Yang usually ended up flirting even  _ more _ subtly, which had a tendency to befuddle Weiss for a few moments before she eventually caught on again.

Alas, the resident tsundere wasn’t exactly… present. Ruby’s downward gaze was a reminder of that as the girl stared down at her coffee, occasionally tapping it once or twice to get a few ripples out and watching them for the moment or two before they disappeared. Her mood had fallen once more, and Yang once again caught sight of metal around Ruby’s neck.

A choker. One with a single, beautiful lock hanging off of the golden chain. The lock was in the form of a rose, the center tinted white and transitioning to red at the edges. A single hole marked where some sort of key would’ve gone, though Yang had never seen or heard any mention of whatever key might’ve gone with it. Perhaps there wasn’t one, and for a brief moment the blonde found herself hoping that was the case. She knew the significance of it. Weiss had even gone so far as to make sure it was okay with Yang if the Ice Queen gave it to Ruby.

She even knew the words inscribed on the back of the flower.

 

**_For my sweet, fragrant Rose_ **

 

Yang grit her teeth. It hurt to see her sister in so much pain, but it hurt still more to know that the cause of it all was nowhere to be found. Yang took a few moments to try and steady her breathing, keep the flames within her from flaring up too brightly. It was an effort that this time, much like every other time, was proving fruitless. Yang glanced up to meet Blake’s eyes, and the raven-haired lass nodded in understanding. 

Yang stood slowly, each muscle tense with anger, frustration, and sadness most of all. She pet Ruby on the head as she passed, moving through the house towards the back door, grabbing the single pair of golden bracelets that lay on the coffee table as she passed through the living room and slipping them on.

A few minutes later, and the sounds of shells being shot off could be heard from the backyard. It had always been how Yang took out her frustrations, Ruby found herself musing. If Yang wasn’t at the gym or in the principal’s office she was out beating on a tree or something. That wasn’t to say Yang was particularly violent, it just so happened that punching things helped her a lot more than anything else. It was like Blake and her reading.

Or Weiss and her stupid fancy sword lessons.

Ruby found her mind travelling back to the week before, leading up to yesterday, hoping to find something within her memories that might allow her to figure out if Weiss had really left of her own accord, if this was premeditated or if she’d just up and left. While she thought, Blake finished her cup and stood, bringing it with her as she walked over and put the dish in the sink before looking back over at the table. Yang had, of course, forgotten to deal with her cup. Though over time Blake had realized that Yang tended to drink it all later in the day, so the cat merely let out a small sigh before she too moved to head into the backyard, opting to give Ruby whatever time she needed to think and grasp what was going on.

 

The metallic sound caused by the Ember Celica firing off their Dust projectiles was almost deafening when Blake opened the door and stepped outside. She instinctively winced, having forgot just how loud they were after so long without having to hear them. She walked out and leaned against the house a few feet away from the door, watching Yang take out her frustrations on the stone blocks they had set up in the yard for just this purpose. Over the years Yang had gone through a few of them, and by the look of the pile of rubble slowly forming in the place of this current one they were going to have to buy a few more.

It was almost calming for her. Watching Yang, that is.

Albeit the fact Blake was watching rather closely also meant she had to take care not to let her mind wander. The situation between the two of them was… strange, to say the least. It wasn’t as pronounced as the relationship Weiss and Ruby possessed, but Blake supposed it was something at the very least, it wasn’t as advanced as the other two, but again it was still something.

She stood there for at least a good thirty minutes before Yang calmed down just enough that she realized she was out of ammo, and lifted herself off the wall as the blonde turned around and caught sight of her. Blake managed a smile at Yang’s momentarily surprised expression, and after a moment Blake found herself walking closer to the other girl. She was still in her sleepwear, as none of them had really gone about getting dressed and Blake found herself doubting that Ruby was going to do so today, what with the situation with Weiss and everything.

Which brought her to the reason she had wandered out here.

“We can’t just leave her to wallow in her self-pity, you know.”

Yang sighed, and turned to face the small pile of rubble behind her as Blake came to a halt besides her. “Yeah, I know that. I just don’t know what to do to help.”

Blake raised an eyebrow at that. Yang had known Ruby longer than anyone else, since they were sisters. Granted, it was common knowledge among the four that Weiss knew more about Ruby than anyone.

Which brought to mind another phrase.

_ Weiss would know. _

“I don’t buy it,” Blake said instead, aiming a small smirk in Yang’s direction at the look she was given. “You’re her  _ sister _ , Yang. Excluding Weiss you know her better than anyone.” Blake thought for a moment, turning her gaze towards the crumbled stone as well. “I also don’t buy that Weiss would’ve left of her own accord.”

Yang seemed happy for the change in subject, and nodded. “Yeah, that’s what I’ve been thinking. She’s too stubborn to just leave us like that. Remember when her dad tried to take her out of Beacon?”

It was Blake’s turn to nod. “Yes. She made a huge scene in protest. How could I forget?”

That day had been something else, all right. Weiss’s father had made it all the way to the Academy gates only to find them frozen shut with his daughter standing defiantly on the other side. She’d slipped out of class and when Mr. Schnee had started raising a fuss about it the rest of the school had found themselves drawn outside to the commotion. 

Weiss asked her father for a valid, undisputable reason as to why she couldn’t remain at Beacon, and the man hadn’t well been able to state that he just didn’t like her being there in front of, well… everyone. It would’ve ruined his public image, according to the Ice Bitch herself after the fact.

“It just doesn’t add up,” Yang mused, and Blake once again found herself in agreeance. If Weiss had something she wanted to hide she would’ve left a longer note. If she had an issue with them she would’ve been vocal about it, she’d learned that it was fine to let them know if she had issues with them. It just wasn’t like her, and the two of them supposed that the shock of that fact may have been what had hit Ruby the hardest. This wasn’t characteristic of Weiss, but the handwriting was hers from what they could tell.

They found themselves talking for a bit about the situation as a whole, and by the time they had decided on a course of action noon had come and gone, and Ruby had migrated from the kitchen back into her room, where she was staring blankly at a wall with her half-finished Crescent Rose resting in her lap, various bits of machinery and weapon parts strewn over most of the bed, save for a single, almost strangely clear spot almost right in the midst of it all, where Weiss would usually have sat reading or talking with Ruby as the youngest member of the house worked on her magnum opus.

Now though, it was simply a strangely empty circle on an otherwise clutter-coated bed.

Ruby didn’t seem to notice when Yang peered in, nor did she seem to notice when Yang moved away with a somber expression and the faintest hint of red in her eyes.

 

Whatever had caused this.

 

Whatever had happened to Weiss.

 

Yang and Blake had decided they’d find out.

 

For Ruby.


	2. So We Begin

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here we are again. Hello everyone. Bit later than any of us thought eh? Don't worry. This one isn't getting dropped just like that.
> 
> As always, hope you enjoy, and I'd love to hear what you think of the world/story here at the start. There's not too much to go on, I know, but I love listening to your guys' ideas and theories and such. Send 'em at me! 
> 
> Enjoy this chapter, I'll talk to you all in the next one.

 

_ “When the sun has set, no candle can replace it.”  _

-Dylan Thomas

 

    Sunlight shone in through the open curtains as a form came to shape over Ruby as she opened her eyes, familiar white locks gliding like wisps along the silver-eyed girl’s skin as she stared into a pair so brilliantly blue they seemed to put the sky to shame. Her smile was brilliant, as it always was, as Weiss rocked Ruby side to side.

    “Come on, sleepy. It’s time to get up.”

    Ruby grumbled, “Just five more minutes.”

    “Nope, not allowed,” Weiss laughed softly as she rolled off of the mattress, stood, and with a flourish ripped the covers off from Ruby’s form. “Come on, Yang and Blake are already up.” Weiss began to walk towards the door to the bedroom, stopping halfway there to aim a knowing smirk as she seemed to think aloud. “I think Blake’s making strawberry pancakes?”

    Ruby was up in an instant, rushing past Weiss with an excited, “Beat you there!” as she threw the door open and was seated at the kitchen table in the next instant. Weiss giggled softly and shook her head, taking her own steps out into the rest of the house as she spoke quietly to herself.

    “You’re such a kid, Ruby.”

 

    Ruby woke with tears staining her cheeks, the sunlight obscured by the closed curtains as the dream slipped away as though a ship that had just left port. She felt like crying, she felt like curling up and never emerging from this room again. What was the point, if Weiss wasn’t there? Ruby felt numb, and she curled around herself tightly, tears threatening to make themselves known as she let out a shaky sigh.

    She didn’t want to get up.

    So she didn’t. She laid there for minutes, then hours, until a knock at the door roused her from her self-induced confinement.

    “Ruby?”

    It was Yang. Of course it was. Ruby glanced over her shoulder at the door before rolling back over and continuing to count the shapes she could see in the wall in front of her. She blinked, she breathed. The only thing to mark the passage of time in her current world was the alarm clock on her nightstand, slowly ticking away the seconds of her life.

    A wave of sadness came over her, and Ruby huddled closer into herself as tears pricked at her eyes.  _ Why can’t everything go back to normal?  _ She cried internally.  _ Why did this have to happen? _ She didn’t know, though she desperately wanted to. She wanted to know  _ something _ , to have some sort of hope that Weiss was going to come back, that her Snow Princess was going to waltz into the bedroom door at any moment, complaining about how Ruby wasn’t up yet and how it wasn’t healthy for her to stay in bed so long. 

    The door opened, and Ruby heard the padding of feet on the carpet floor of the bedroom as Yang approached, the bed shifting as the broken girl’s elder sister sat on the other side and reached over, placing a hand on Ruby’s side. “Come on, Red. Moping about won’t solve anything.” Yang was right, Ruby knew. 

    “I just want her to come back,” Ruby muttered weakly.

    “I know, Ruby. We all do,” Yang confided in an equally soft tone. Silence passed for a few moments before Ruby heard Blake’s voice from the doorway.

    “Pancakes are done.”

    Yang leaned over and nudged Ruby with her elbow, “Ya hear that? Blake made pancakes.”  
    Ruby grunted.

    Yang rolled her eyes as she got up and moved over to Ruby’s side of the bed, nonchalantly lifting her sister into her arms- despite Ruby’s cry of protest- and carried her out into the kitchen, setting the swaddle into her usual chair as Blake brought the veritable mountain of strawberry pancakes over and set them in the center of the table. 

    Ruby felt a twinge of excitement at the sight of them, and almost would’ve jumped up to start piling them onto her plate if it weren’t for her current emotional state. Yang and Blake knew it too, and so they waited until Ruby finally reached out and nabbed one, swiftly pulling her arm back and taking a bite out of it before setting it onto her plate.

    It had only been a day, but Yang could see that Ruby was slowly coping in what ways she could, though she was still confident in her priority to find Weiss. Taking care of her sister always came first, finding Weiss tended to fall neatly into that as well so Yang was more than happy to slip those two once-separate priorities into the same one.

    They ate in relative silence, Blake and Yang making their usual witty comments to one another, Yang stringing a few puns together before Blake reached over the table to flick the blonde in the forehead for her sins, to which Ruby managed a half-hearted laugh.

    After dinner, Ruby went back to her room saying something about working on Crescent Rose, which was definitely a better alternative than what she’d been doing before Yang had grabbed Ruby.

    Yang and Blake found themselves standing outside on the front porch, a cigarette burning in Yang’s right hand. Given the situation it was excusable. Blake had spent much of last night trying to get in contact with some of her old friends who could possibly help them in their search, and Yang had cross-referenced everything she could think of that would help them as well.

    So far they hadn’t gotten very far, but something told them it wouldn’t stay that way for too long.

    “We’re getting nowhere,” Yang muttered darkly, taking another pull from the item in her hand as a bird flew overhead. Blake tracked it with her eyes instinctively, one of her faunus ears twitching slightly in response as she let out a sigh herself, leaning against one of the beams that lined the edge of the porch.

    “You’re not entirely wr-” Blake darted her hand out to catch a folded triangle of white as it fell from above, the paper crackling softly as she brought her hand back. Yang stared at her for a moment before Blake showed the paper. Notes didn’t just fall from the sky. 

    “What does it say?” Yang inquired, a hint of excitement in her voice as she walked over to be able to read over Blake’s shoulder as the cat opened the note.

 

**_To the two searching for Weiss Schnee,_ **

**_Tell Red she’s alive._ **

**_I have information you may like to hear._ **

**_Meet me at the docks tomorrow afternoon. I’ll make myself obvious._ **

 

_ -X _

 

    “Who the hell signs a letter as X?” Yang muttered incredulously as Blake narrowed her eyes. There was something strange about the note, but that first line of information was more than they had been able to go off of before. They’d been trying to act under the hope Weiss was still alive, but had also been forced to realize she could’ve just as easily been dead. If this person was to be trusted, which is something Blake was skeptical of but couldn’t find much reason to disbelieve. If Weiss was indeed alive it meant more than they could possibly be hoping for.

    It meant there was a chance.

    She hated to see it, hated to know it, but Ruby was reliant on Weiss by this point. The poor girl had followed the heiress just about everywhere before the aforementioned Snow had vanished into thin air. Without Weiss, Ruby was rather lost. And it showed it almost everything the youngest of their household did.

    “Whoever they are,” Blake started, “They certainly know how to get our attention.”

  
  


    The majority of the rest of the day passed in silence, much like the day before it. Ruby was adapting to not having Weiss around, though as one could expect she didn’t quite seem the Little Red the black-and-yellow pair were used to being around. This was a more reserved Ruby, far more drawn into herself. Yang noticed the lack of accessories adorning her younger sister’s frame. It made sense, considering they were all memories of Weiss, but that didn’t make it any less concerning. She and Blake had made the decision earlier in the day that they would wait to tell Ruby about Weiss being alive until they had spoken to this “X” and gotten more information about the matter- whatever they were willing to give at least. 

    Nobody really found themselves too terribly hungry that evening, the lack of Ice Bitch posturing around the place leaving an unwelcome weight in the air. Ruby retreated to her lair in the room she and Weiss had both resided in, and the faint sounds of the Crescent Rose being taken apart and put together over and over again played as some of the only background noise within the house.

    “You know,” Blake muttered, turning her gaze over to Yang as the blond lay sprawled across the couch, the TV remote held in her hand as she absently flipped stations, discontent with just about everything that was playing at the current moment, “I used to think I’d enjoy having the house this quiet.” The cat turned her gaze to the ceiling, remembering the many times she had got onto her four compatriots about the amount of noise they generated within the house on a near constant basis. She had thought that having the house almost devoid of noise would be relaxing and peaceful, but instead it was an eerie feeling, broken only by the din of the TV as Yang finally settled on a channel and let the remote drop to the floor.

    Blake returned her gaze to the blond as the latter blew a stray strand of hair out of her eyes. Yang was definitely sprawled out. Her feet hung off of one end of the couch while her face was mushed into the cushion at the other, just an inch or two away from resting upon the armrest, her right arm resting on the floor a short distance beneath her. It was a bored Yang.  

    After a few moments of the relative silence, Yang’s voice cut through. “Yeah. Some days I thought the same, but now that we have it…” She didn’t need to finish the sentence. The melancholy tone in her voice did that for her.  _ Now that we have it, it doesn’t seem right at all. _ It wasn’t peaceful, it was haunting. A reminder that a member of their team was alone, lost, and to the cliche probably cold as well. They all knew Weiss could handle herself, but at the same time they could only hope she wouldn’t get in over her head.

    Something she had the odd tendency to do here and then.

    Blake laughed softly in an attempt to lighten the atmosphere that had settled upon the two of them. “That’s gonna leave one nasty imprint on your cheek,” she remarked slyly, earning herself a set of rolled eyes from Yang before the girl adjusted herself, flipping onto her back so that she wasn’t depressing her face into the couch.

    “Better?”

    Blake nodded, a stray thought claiming her mind and causing her to flush slightly. She was probably reading too many of her… “special” books. She knew Ruby had snatched a few for the usual excuse of research or whatever, and Blake herself had even found the not-so-small library that Weiss kept hidden in places around the house. No one series was ever found in the same place, but each book was set so that Frosty could almost seem to pull her desired book out of thin air when she wanted to.

    Blake was certain she never quite found them all.

    She let her mind wander as she tilted her head towards the ceiling once more and closed her eyes, the noise of the house fading away with her consciousness as she slipped into dream. Where Weiss was with them, and everything was just as it had always been.

    Happy.

  
  



	3. Weiss

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, it has been a while. Sorry for that, school kind of crept up and told me I couldn't do anything for a while.
> 
> That said, I'm out of the doghouse so let's get back to work!
> 
> As always, comments and kudos are much loved and appreciated. Lets me know what all you guys are thinking as the story progresses, so lay it on! Until next time~!

“ **Strength** does **not** come from physical capacity. It comes from an indomitable will.”

-Gandhi

Her everywhere hurt. That much was certain, and as she opened her eyes a dark purple stone floor met her gaze, as cold and impassive as one would expect from it. After a moment or so, she slowly drew herself up, planting her hands on either side of her and pushing against the ground as she stood and took a look around her. She seemed to be within some sort of cavern, dark violet stone all around her, glittering amethyst gemstones the size of her arm embedded within and poking slightly out of it. She took a step forward, noting the natural luminance of the gems around her as she began to move forward. She had nowhere else to move, and so forward seemed to be not only the only option, but also the most logical at this point in time.

The cavern seemed to stretch on forever, the purple light and eerie quiet her only company in this space as she moved. She was tense, more so than she had ever been. Each unexpected sound made her jump in her skin, and her hands shook uncontrollably. Time dragged on, and what felt like hours she knew could only have been mere minutes. The landscape around her stayed the same. Cold, hard, and almost amusingly purple. There were no branching paths, no torches. Nothing but the gemstones in this expanse. It was steadily beginning to feel more like a hallway than a cavern, but as she took yet another step that feeling ended.

The air around her crackled, and she felt a chill through her body as though she’d just stepped through a ghost. The hair on her arms lifted slightly, and she quickly glanced behind her to see what she’d moved through-

Only to find herself facing a wall. It was perfectly flat, unnaturally so, and when she put her hand up against it she noted that it felt as solid as the rest of her surroundings. She pressed against it, hoping to find it give under the force as she did so, but finding that it was just as solid as her surroundings. She turned to look back behind her, towards the only real way out. She could see a dim light ahead, and after a moment of hesitation she began to move towards it.

For once, the cavern made a turn. She laid herself flat against the wall, peeking out to check what lie beyond. She felt her breath catch in her throat, and her heart seemed to stop momentarily as she laid her eyes on a skeleton slumped against the far wall, nestled behind a boulder with its left hand resting on a garment- a dress- that must have been absolutely gorgeous before the girl had suffered her fate. There was a hole in the dress just under the skeletal hand, and she could clearly see red that had long since stained the fabric. As she came out from behind the corner, she whispered a silent prayer to the soul of that poor individual, and took care as she began to creep past it.

Silver glimmered as she moved past, and her gaze darted towards the open right hand of the corpse. Laid within it was a rapier, and quite an expensive one at that. It glittered silver, and the pommel held within it what the girl could only liken to a revolver cylinder, vials of colored _something_ held within. She looked from the blade to the hallway down which she would be forced to go, shifting her weight between her feet before silently muttering an apology before gently kneeling down and taking the rapier from the skeleton. She felt kind of bad for taking it, but at the same time she had no idea what lay in wait for her, and it was better to be safe than sorry. 

The blade felt light in her hands, and her hand wrapped perfectly around the handle. _Almost as though it were made for me,_ she thought grimly to herself. She eyed the cylinder cautiously for a few moments before deciding it may just be best to not mess with it for now. As she continued walking, she continued to inspect it further. Delicate carvings decorated the pommel, and at the very bottom of the blade she saw a name inscribed into the steel, flush with the cylinder.

_Myrtenaster_ , she read. It was an elegant name for sure, and due to it being a rapier she figured she could at least put that decade of fencing lessons to use if she ended up getting attacked for some reason.

She let out a sigh. It seemed as though she’d been in here for hours, and she was beginning to get tired of it all. Nevermind that, though, she wanted to know where she was and how she got here, and how in the hell she was expected to back home. She didn’t have a single doubt that Ruby was worried sick by this point, and she half-expected Yang or Blake to be around the next corner glaring at her.

She rounded a second bend, and found herself momentarily blinded. She took a step backwards, shielding her eyes with her free hand. After a moment, her eyes adjusted, and she lowered her hand to survey the landscape outside of the cave she’d just been in. A bleak, rocky scene greeted her, flashes of purple lightning in the sky as she took a tentative step out, finding the ground blissfully solid beneath her feet. She turned her head to the left, and her eyes widened in surprise. Only one hundred yards away she saw the landscape being lifted sharply, chunks of rock floating in empty space upwards towards the darkness that waited above. 

Weiss slowly turned her gaze back in the other direction, finding the sight of a black castle looming in the distance. Lightning flashed across the sky, purple in color and light as Weiss took a step forwards. Her skin tingled, and she rolled forwards on instinct as something came down behind her. She heard the whoosh of air being cut and whirled on her feet to face the entity. Before her she saw a cloaked figure, one whose gender she could not tell until they lifted their face. Ice blue eyes of a worryingly familiar shade glared out at her from beneath the shroud as the stranger pulled their weapon from the ground. It was a broadsword, with entire gems running up the middle. It reminded Weiss of the cylinder on the rapier, and she watched with the weapon brandished defensively as the stranger slowly placed the blade upon their back. The click of the blade bottoming out in the sheath gave Weiss a bit of security, and she relaxed her stance slightly.

“Who are you?” her voice almost sounded like a whisper to her own ears, and the hooded figure responded simply, their hands coming up to their hood before stopping, almost as though deciding on a course of action before she lowered them back down and gave her verbal reply.

“R,” she said, her voice firm and almost militant as she eyed Weiss, who was becoming increasingly concerned with just how familiar this girl looked to her. “I suggest you get out of the open. The mutts living in the castle will come after you the moment they find out you’re here.”

The words struck an odd chord and prompted another question.

“Was I being expected?”

R’s steady gaze lowered into a glare, and she turned around before walking off with a small beckoning motion in Weiss’s direction. Not to be refused an answer, she swiftly followed the cloaked warrior into a forest she apparently hadn’t noticed until just now. While the cave she had come out of was indeed inside a mountain, just a short distance to the other side of the entrance was the woodland area she was now following R through. She figured she’d have seen it if she’d looked right, though at the same time she didn’t know for certain. For all she knew there were rabid gnomes with party hats and glitter guns waiting to maul her. The thought was both amusing and yet horrifying at the same time. 

R didn’t speak as they walked, and Weiss couldn’t tell if it was out of concentration or if this person just really didn’t like talking. Still, she needed an answer. “I’ll ask again. Was I expected?” R stopped suddenly at the words, a sigh escaping through her lips as she turned around slowly. Her ice blue eyes bored into Weiss, an intensity unlike any other almost causing the Ice Queen to back down, but she held her ground, planting her feet and squaring up to make it clear she wasn’t about to be intimidated. After a moment R relented, and let out another exhale followed by a simple “Yes. You were. In a sense.”

“In a sense?” Weiss pried as they began to walk again. R muttered something under her breath after a moment, but shook her head before Weiss could ask what it was about.

“Yes, in a sense. They were expecting you, or someone like you. What matters now is we get you out of here and back to your world before any of them find you.” The phrase struck another odd chord: _‘back to your world’._ It was obvious, truthfully, but hearing it stated so bluntly was still a bit of a shock. 

“And here I thought I was dreaming,” Weiss groaned, slumping slightly before looking ahead a bit. A short distance ahead was a cave entrance, faint light creeping out into the darkening forest as they drew closer to shelter. R motioned for Weiss to stop when they reached the entrance. 

“Stay here for a moment,” she said simply, leaving the other girl with no chance to reply in any sense before she disappeared into the cave. Weiss heard murmurs within, some sort of conversation transpiring and the sound of steel being set against stone.There were a few notes of what she believed were affirmation, and R appeared again after a moment, signalling for her to enter.

Weiss stepped into the cave, greeted by the gentle light of fire as she followed her mostly silent guide. They stepped into what was most likely the primary room, a campfire set up in the middle of it, with various belongings scattered about. There was a block of stone set to one side of the room, as though to mimic what Weiss assumed was some sort of counter, and atop it sat another girl. She regarded Weiss with eyes of a deep violet as the pair entered, white hair decorated with streaks of lavender framing her face and running far down her back. She was dressed in a distinctly dystopian manner, much like R. The bottom half of her face was covered by a black mask, with a set of three tubes running from it to something inside the tan messenger bag that rested against the girl’s left hip. She was dressed dominantly in black, with a simple gray cloak adding the only bit of actual light to her clothing.

“You must be the new arrival,” she said simply, hopping off of the counter and extending a hand to Weiss. “Kiara Chross,” she glanced at R for a moment before continuing, “R explained the situation to me, so you don’t particularly have to worry.” Her tone was confident, but was met with a deadpan look from Weiss.

“That doesn’t tell me anything,” she responded. 

Kiara raised an eyebrow, glancing over to R. Violet eyes looked back to Weiss, analyzing her and her attire for a few moments before she slowly spoke again, seeming a tad hesitant in her response. “What do you want to know?”

Weiss’s response was simple, short, and brutally to the point as the pointed tip of Myrtenaster clinked against the stone floor. She fixed her gaze on Kiara, resolve she didn’t particularly have at the moment reinforcing her words and stance as she spoke.

“Tell me everything.”

 


End file.
